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Friday, April 1, 2016

Homey Suspense: What do you Collect? by Rolynn Anderson

On this day, April 1st, I'm talking about foolish things we do. Never planned on it. Did it anyway. Me: Bottle Stoppers.Stop with the stoppers, I say.Yup, I have a collection of wine stoppers and
I’ve decided 30 is enough.Cost and
space factors were the main considerations when I began collecting wine stoppers.I like buying pretty things that remind me of
the places I travel, but without much room in either the expense account or the
suitcase, little souvenirs made sense.(Full
disclosure, one of my purchases broke the bank at $45, and of course, I had to
go searching for a way to display the things, and those plastic gizmos cost a
fortune.)It helps that I like wine and the display of my glitzy corks brightened up the bar.Not so smart was how BIG some of the corks
are, too tall on the bottle to stand up in the refrigerator or too heavy to balance on top of the container.

I’m presenting you some pictures of my
collection.Now I want to know what you
collect; how it started and if you’ve been able to ‘manage’ it without too much
angst. Or Foolishness. For those of you who have the
non-collecting gene, we want to hear your story, too, even if we won’t be able
to understand it.

Those series we write are also ‘collections,’ not
always easy to manage.Here’s my
boutique funeral planner threesome:

Boutique funeral
planners morph into a quirky detective agency, exposing secrets of the dead.The heroine, with a fainting disorder, has
prescient faint dreams; the hero is a muck-raking journalist.Add: blind forensic investigator, embalmer,
retired Army general, and a service dog.

12 comments:

Candles have been my obsession of choice. The nice thing is you can use them up, toss them and buy more. Although I have a few too pretty to do that to. Then there's the various holders that remain. Brass, glass, metal, ceramic. The spaces for display. Oh-oh. More stuff to contend with! Wine toppers. I like wine! Oh-oh!

I love your collection, RoLynn! I think your stoppers are perfect collectibles to remind you of special places or happy times. I can see where you've hit your limit at 30 though :-) I used to collect tea pots, and then a series of moves which had me packing, storing and forgetting what I had sort of ended that. These days I don't collect anything. I have no room for knick-knacks, and I have boxes of those which we've inherited from family members stored...somewhere. :-) I suppose clutter doesn't count, does it? Thanks for sharing your collection!

Margo, we are together on this...sometimes the boxes stuff comes in, like candy, are cooler than the food inside. And I hasten to say, wine is quickly consumed much like candy...just saying, it certainly fits your standards!

Leah, the inherited stuff is forced collecting...but it DOES count, because we have to store it somehow. It's the finding space for our stuff that's the challenge!

LOL Love your collection, Rolynn. I kind of have the same one, all given to me by friends. Apparently, they think of wine when they think of me. :-) I've also collected tea pots, Leah. They're very soothing for some reason. But little shoes are my kryptonite. I can't help myself. They're so cute...and really dusty.

Maybe I should collect a maid service to keep all my chachkies looking good.

At least wine stoppers are manageable, Rolynn. I have quite a few wooden goblets my grandpa made, and a lot of knick-knack mice my grandma collected. But my husband made shelves for those, so now the only issue is dust... Hmm, of my own free will, I collected cow magnets for the fridge, and I have a cow print tea kettle. Not too bad. I guess my obsessive collecting gene is under control.

I have two collections - paintings and snow village pieces - and I've managed to stop myself before either got out of control. The price of original oil paintings was self-limiting, as was the wall space. For my snow village, OG made a platform that I set on my dining room buffet. It provides space for a perfect vignette, but no room to buy more pieces.

Oh, good Lord, I forgot about the Snow Village pieces since they're currently out of sight in the closet. I have a gazillion of those from Pat's mom. Completely out of control... Okay, I admit it. My name is Jannine, and I have a compulsive collecting gene.

You guys are making me laugh! Two snow village women and two refrigerator magnet collectors. Two tea potters. Another theme here is 'husbands who make shelves,' surely not commenting on said collection. I am not going to mention book-collecting here, at all, since we're allowed...for business purposes, of course.

I have a friend who collects husbands (the number might be 10). And I'm not kidding you!

Rolynn, what a great collection--but you're so right about those fancy corks making the bottle too tall to stand up in the fridge. It's so annoying! My own obsession for a while was handblown perfume bottles, but as the very delicate stoppers kept getting broken as guests inquisitively handled the bottles when they used the restroom, I've now abandoned that collection. Sort of...

Sounds like you have a (somewhat) small and easy-to-pack souvenirs. Back in the '80s, my MIL gave me a nutcracker for Christmas. I guess I was too enthusiastic with my thanks. I got nutcrackers (more than one, mind you) every Christmas. Not just from her, but from her sister, Hubs (who thinks more is better), my family. Finally, I said enough. Hubs counted them 2 years ago. Over a hundred. The grandkiddies love to see them so I'll keep putting them out. Maybe I could start giving them to the grandkiddies???